16 THE QUEENS COURIER • DECEMBER 23, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Adrienne Adams in line to become next Council speaker
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Queens Councilwoman Adrienne Adams
on Sunday, Dec. 19, celebrated her all-butguaranteed
Councilman Miller lauds MTA’s new fare reduction
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
cmohamed@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Aft er a nearly decade-long fi ght for
transportation equity in transit-starved
communities of color, Councilman I.
Daneek Miller on Wednesday, Dec. 15,
lauded the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority’s (MTA) new fare reduction,
including the expansion of the City
Ticket — a fl at-fare $5 ticket for travel
within NYC on weekends — to all weekday
off -peak trains.
Th e MTA also announced that all
LIRR and Metro-North fares will remain
off -peak (including during traditional
peak travel times) through Feb. 28,
2022, meaning that through February,
all intra-city fares will be reduced to $5.
“Our fare structure is an important
tool we have to win back riders,” Janno
Lieber, MTA acting chair and CEO,
said. “Business logic says it doesn’t make
sense to increase the price just as you’re
trying to rebuild your customer base.
So, we’re leaving the basic fare alone for
now and rolling out a slate of new pilot
fare promotions.”
Miller said the MTA’s announcement
is a good fi rst step in fi nally advancing
transit equity for all New Yorkers
— especially those currently priced out
from the LIRR and Metro-North fares.
“Since we began our eff orts to address
transit deserts in 2014, we’ve made
incredible progress and changed the
conversation citywide on what transit
equity looks like for Black and brown
New Yorkers,” Miller said. “It’s especially
rewarding to be able to inform
my constituents, who have heavily utilized
the Atlantic Ticket, that they are
now able to get anywhere in the city for
that fl at $5 fare through February during
peak times, and off -peak aft er that.”
Miller says he is confi dent that this
development will be a game-changer
going forward, as he thanked his colleagues
and the advocates that pushed
the MTA on this matter for the past
eight years.
“With ridership not expected to reach
pre-pandemic levels anytime soon, capturing
that lost revenue is a huge benefi t
for the MTA, and it’s our hope that they
will consider keeping this fare structure
in eff ect and expanding it to include
a free transfer to subways and buses,”
Miller said.
In 2015, Miller passed a resolution
calling upon the MTA to allow riders
traveling within the city to pay
a fare equivalent to subway and bus
rates, which was ultimately modifi ed
and adopted as the Atlantic Ticket,
which off ers $5 one-way tickets to and
from Atlantic Terminal from stations in
southeast Queens, with the exception of
the Rockaways.
Since then, Miller has worked to expand
the successful pilot citywide, including
the free transfer to subways and buses.
Implemented in 2018, the Atlantic
Ticket has sold over 2 million tickets
through June 2021, capturing an additional
$16 million in revenue. Most importantly,
it has given back valuable time to
residents, dramatically cutting commute
times.
victory to be the next Council
speaker during a Zoom conference with fellow
members of the city’s legislative body.
“Th ere’s a new day on us everybody, it’s a
new day. By the time we’re done, I believe
New York will be a stronger, fairer and safer
place for everyone,” Adams said during the
Dec. 19 virtual rally.
Adams declared victory Dec. 17, saying
she secured support from 32 fellow City
Council members for the internal vote in
January. She would take over as the fi rst
Black woman to lead the Council, the second
most powerful post in the city.
She overcame several challengers in the
race that was largely fought behind closed
doors, with her most notable competition
coming from fellow Queens Council member
Francisco Moya who was pushed by
incoming Mayor Eric Adams.
Almost-Speaker Adams will
replace outgoing Speaker and
Manhattan Council Member
Corey Johnson, and she vowed
that the 51-member body will act
as a balance of power for Mayorto
be Adams come January.
“We will work with the new
mayor, but also serve as a check
on the other side of City Hall,”
she said.
Adams has represented southeast
Queens neighborhoods since 2018
and said her priorities are curbing
the city’s surge
in gun violence,
expand aff ordable housing,
and ensure a fair recovery
from the pandemic
as the fi ve boroughs
face down another
surge with the omicron
variant.
“No New Yorker
can be left behind
at this moment and
we will fi ght every
single day to make
sure that that does not
happen,” she said.
Aft er her introduction,
several of her
former
contenders in the speaker’s race joined to
congratulate her.
“I’m here to make sure that I can give
you my full support and continue to work
together on the issues that we care about,”
Moya said. “We have a lot to do and the race
is over and I think one of the main things is
for us to continue to really look at the issues
that we care about and how we can get all
this done to make you the strong speaker
that we know that you are.”
Th e City Council will also have its fi rstever
female majority, and Councilwoman
Diana Ayala, who represents uptown and
South Bronx neighborhoods, called the
moment historic.
“We knew six months ago, a year ago, we’ve
been talking about the need for the next
speaker to be a woman,” Ayala said. “We’re
witnessing history here because, not only are
we getting what we wanted, but we’re also
getting our fi rst African-American, female
speaker and this is history that we’re living
through.”
Marc A. Hermann/MTA
The MTA’s advertising campaign encourages riders to wear a mask.
Screenshot via
Zoom
Adrienne
Adams
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